News - Strateline gearbox alternative

Posted by Andrew Ralston | Posted on 01.05.18

Here at STM UK, we pride ourselves on utilising our fantastic range of products to provide innovative solutions where others fail. This was recently put to the test by one of our lovely customers, read on to find out more…

Our customer approached us looking for a replacement gearbox for a Strateline reducer that had been fitted for many years on a water treatment plant. The gearbox had suffered a catastrophic failure of its gears causing a major headache to the plant. The Strateline gearbox which is no longer in production was quite unique in its time, as it had a low shaft centreline height with high capacity bearings on its output making many modern gearboxes unsuitable as replacements. This is the sort of challenge we really enjoy, and we started to formulate a plan. It was established that we had some space to play with behind the unit as the original design was of a parallel design so we were able to use an in-line planetary geared motor.

Working in a partnership with our customer, our designers we able to quickly establish that the small physical size and high-performance requirements were best fulfilled with an STM planetary gearbox. Taking measurements from the existing gearbox we established that we could manufacture an adapter plate with identical mounting holes and shaft centreline height reducing the expensive site time that could be required when trying to adapt a different gearbox to such an old application.

The new drive solution was assembled in-house using component parts and a mounting adaptor manufactured from a drawing made by our design team. Due to the harsh environment, following assembly, the entire unit was coated using our aggressive paint finish which was again applied in our paint facility at our Winsford HQ. The entire process was completed in around 3 weeks and delivered to our customer where it was fitted immediately to the water treatment plant which was quickly up and running again. There are 4 of these old units at the treatment plant and we are working with our customer to replace them during maintenance periods ensuring minimum downtime.

If you are struggling with an old or obsolete gearbox, just give our team a call to find out what STM UK can do for you.